As you are packing for fun this holiday, here’s a short list of things to organize on Memorial Day Weekend.

It’s a short list, because honestly, I don’t want you organizing. I want you out there enjoying your friends, the pool, the parades, the beach, or just laying around reading, which I might or might not be doing.

The fact still remains that life is easier if things are organized, so here’s that short list. Pick one or two:

Swim stuff. Suits, goggles, water toys, all that stuff probably needs a quick once over. If you limit your organizing project to just these three types of things, this will surely take less than 30 minutes. You can put replacement items on your Amazon list or your Evernote shopping list to pick up at Target while you are out.

Holiday decorations. OK, truth be told, you might not know where everything is right this minute. You can just pick through the basement, garage, and decoration closets, ignoring the rest if you have to. Look for flags, bunting, and flag-themed decor. Gather it all together and look for a storage bin that you can place it all in after the weekend. Here’s some beautiful storage in a basement with holiday decor separated and labeled in bins, each holiday in separate bins. Again, this is a 30 minute project for JUST THIS HOLIDAY. No more. How long it takes you to decorate is up to you. 🙂

Sunscreen and bug spray. Check your stock to make sure it’s not expired. Place sunscreen where you need it, like in your pool bag, an easy to get to, labeled spot for sunscreen by the house door that your family uses most, and maybe in each kid’s backpack. You can store some in the car, but remember that sunscreen degrades more quickly in heat, so store a smaller container there, and plan on using it up quickly.

Baseball gloves. Well, really, any summer sports gear. Stay focused, and just go through the summer sports gloves, bats, balls, bikes, scooters, and whatnot. Get your family’s outgrown gear in to a sports consignment shop now, so you can earn a little money and replace what has worn out.

And the holy grail of organizing...the garage. If you have family around this weekend to tackle it with you, you’ll reap the rewards of having an organized garage the rest of the year! If you want a super beautiful organized garage like this one, then you’ll start with the decluttering this weekend, and call me to add the sexy part as soon as we can get you on the schedule.

Memorials. It’s easy to focus on the holiday sales and barbecues, and forget that this is actually a time to remember those who died in the service of the United States of America. It’s a great time to break out the pictures of ancestors and share their story with the younger generation. Our World War II vets are almost lost to us. If you’ve been wanting to organize your family’s photos, maybe this is the perfect place to start. You won’t (and probably can’t) get them all organized over one weekend, but maybe this is a time to start asking family members to share photos that they have hidden away. If you’d like to turn those photos and stories into something that your whole family will cherish, we can help with that.

Yes, there’s plenty more Memorial Day Weekend organizing you could do, but really, probably not a lot more you should do. Give yourself a break and enjoy the start of summer!